Music in Medieval Britain

IV
THE INSTITUTIONS AND THE
CULTIVATION OF POLYPHONY
FROM 1400 TO THE
REFORMATION

POLYPHONIC music in the early Middle Ages, and until the
late fourteenth century, was sung by solo voices. The respond,
Benedicamus and conductus were ceremonial elaborations or
replacements of soloists' chants in the ritual, while the motet
originated as a troping elaboration of a neuma from the
soloists' part of a respond. The later Middle Ages saw the
development of forms of polyphony in which the whole choir
took part, as in the Mass and the votive antiphon, and of
others in which polyphony sung by one side of the choir alternated with plainsong sung by the other side, as in the Magnificat and Hymn. The leaders of this movement towards choral
polyphony were the more important colleges and collegiate
churches, and the royal and aristocratic household chapels.
The singers in these institutions formed a balanced choir, and
there is good reason to assume that all of them were expected
to be competent in polyphonic music. Though this was not a
statutory or usual requirement in secular cathedrals, it became
customary to support the singing of polyphonic antiphons and
votive Masses by the more expert of the vicars and choristers
in rotation. The greater monasteries also adopted this idea,

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